Scholarly Journals in Library and Information Science

Being more than a month into my second year at Pratt SILS, I’m trying not to drown in the load of reading that comes with the classes. A majority of my readings are from scholarly journals, and I’d like to give a run down of some of the journals that are prevalent in my library school syllabi, but most importantly make note of the journals that are Open Access and FREE for you to browse and access. If you are a current student in library school, I urge you to take advantage of the databases of your school library. Aside from various blogs that exist on the web, this is where you can find the latest news in the profession that’s sure to keep you aware and prepared for future job interviews. They are:

Cataloging and Classification Quarterly – Here you will find a discussion of anything related to bibliographic organization. Including the principles, functions, and techniques of descriptive cataloging; the wide range of methods of subject analysis and classification; provision of access for all formats of materials; and policies, planning, and issues connected to the effective use of bibliographic records in modern society.

Library Hi Tech – Contains articles and thematic issues focused on technology within the library; issues affecting the automation and management of libraries and information centers for professional librarians, information specialists and other subject specialists.

Library Resources & Technical Services – This journal contains articles in the fields of cataloging and classification, acquisitions, collection development and management, serials, preservation and general technical services.

asterisk (*)= Journals that aren’t in my syllabi but may pique your interest.

On the other end of the spectrum, if you’re not in library school below are journals that are Open Access and FREE for anyone to view. A prior post written by Pratt alumnus Lauren Bradley made an excellent point that once we graduate library school our education isn’t over this is a life long learning profession. In reading the comments section fellow Hacker, Annie Pho, provided an excellent comment that led me to this post on OA Student Publications written by none other than HLS alumnus and editor, Julia Skinner. In addition to the publications mentioned in the link I’d like to add:

College and Research Libraries – the official scholarly research journal of the Association of College & Research Libraries, a division of the American Library Association.

Journal of Librarianship and Scholarly Communication – a peer-reviewed open-access publication for original articles, reviews and case studies that analyze or describe the strategies, partnerships and impact of library-led digital projects, online publishing and scholarly communication initiatives.

SLIS Student Research Journal – peer-reviewed publication of San José State University School of Library and Information Science that promotes graduate scholarship and intellectual inquiry in the fields of library and information science, archives and records management, and museum studies.

It is in our advantage and the professions advantage to be up to date on the latest, so that with each new technological advancement, standard change, or research we are aware and prepared to share it with our patrons, students, users, etc. There must be plenty that I missed, as the number of LIS journals is incredibly extensive. Do you have any recommendations? Please comment to add-on.

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12 thoughts on “Scholarly Journals in Library and Information Science”

Admitting to being totally biased, I would recommend the Journal of Access Services as an addition to your list. Philosophically, we’re aiming for a sweet spot between “scholarly, peer-reviewed” and “practical lessons from the front lines.” Access services covers a variety of areas including circulation, inter library loan, reserves, stacks maintenance, building and collection security, and anything else that lacks a traditional home. I believe there are a number of new librarians who find themselves in these roles either as a starting point for their careers, or as paraprofessionals during library school, or by happenstance when budget cuts lead to the streamlining of services and positions.

For library history, a key resource is Information & Culture: A Journal of History, previously named The Journal of Library History and Libraries & The Cultural Record. Sadly, it’s not open access but most academic libraries with an LIS school should have a subscription!

Shout out to my two favorite open access LIS journals: First Monday at http://www.firstmonday.org/ (general LIS in the web era, studies of Wikipedia, search, social networking) & Code4Lib at http://journal.code4lib.org/ (for techie librarians & coders). Both are amazing, well worth reading each issue as it comes out.

Thanks for these resources! Can anyone suggest some key LIS journals in the major European languages? I can find a lot of information on Librarianship online in English, but less so in other languages. I wonder if that is due to the requirement for librarians at US academic libraries to publish?

That’s a great question! I’d like to know the same as well. I’d suggest that you browse the DOAJ link ^I posted, the journal listings have a Language description, and there are journals in Bulgarian, Italian, Portuguese, French, Spanish, German, and that’s not all, there are also journals in Chinese and Arabic language. Hope this is of some help.